A MOTHER has told how she found her two-year-old daughter drowning in a pond after she had wandered off from a Warwickshire nursery.

Devastated Victoria Rae yesterday relived the moment when she jumped into the water, which was covered in algae, to recover what she thought was the toddler's shoe.

It was only as she felt around the pond that she realised her daughter Abigail was in it.

She had turned white and was not breathing. Mrs Rae, a nurse, desperately tried to resuscitate her daughter.

She was flown to hospital in an air ambulance, but tragically she was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.

The incident happened six days before the youngster's third birthday.

Mrs Rae, aged 36, fought back tears as she told an inquest jury at Stratford Town Hall she had dropped her daughter off at the Reddy Teddy Go playgroup in the village of Lower Brailes, near Shipston-on-Stour, at 9am on November 28, 2002.

She said she and her husband Justin, aged 39, had then gone into Shipston-on-Stour to renew their car tax and returned 45 minutes later.

As they pulled up in the drive, Mrs Rae noticed a couple of women from the nursery in the road.

Mrs Rae, who struggled to keep her composure, told the packed hearing: "They both looked panic-stricken. I asked them if they were all right.

"One of them explained 'Someone's lost a dog'.

"Justin and I laughed and I said 'For one minute I thought you'd lost a child'."

She said it was between 15 and 30 minutes later that a woman knocked at their door to report Abby's disappearance.

During the search for Abby, Mrs Rae said she saw two nursery workers in her front garden.

She said: "I immediately stopped by them and the smaller lady said 'She's in the pond'."

Mrs Rae said she dragged her daughter, who suffered from epilepsy, on to grass at the side of the pond, called for help and started resuscitation.